Conferee

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who takes part in a formal meeting or conference
2. One who attends a gathering designed for discussion or consultation
3. An individual involved as a participant in a conference or official meeting

Etymology: The word is simply "confer" plus the suffix "-ee," which marks the person on the receiving end of an action. A conferee is therefore someone who is conferred with: a person invited to take part in a conference, a discussion, or a committee meeting. The "confer" at its base traces back through Latin "conferre," meaning to bring together or compare, from "com-" (together) and "ferre" (to bring). Its Latin ancestry runs through Old French, and the "-ee" ending came into English in Middle English, where it was borrowed through French forms ending in "-é." The pattern is the same one behind "employee," "trainee," and "payee." The most useful part of this word is what it reveals about "confer." English "confer" originally meant to bring things together and compare them, and only later took on the sense of talking things over. Because the "-ee" suffix reliably names the one being acted upon, a conferee is the person being talked with, not the one doing the talking. The construction makes the relationship between the people in a meeting explicit in the word itself.

Synonyms: attendee, participant, delegate, member, representative

Antonyms: nonparticipant, outsider, observer, bystander, spectator